No call for instant replay in postseason

Cliff Floyd has gotten a close look at instant replay and likes what he's seen. He's fine with umpires getting a better view, and he's OK if it takes a few extra minutes.

With replay now a part of the postseason for the first time, the Tampa Bay designated hitter offers one other suggestion: Use it even more.

"I wish it would work on other plays, too," Floyd said. "But if it's going to help get a call right, definitely."

"From what I've seen, I do believe it can work. I hope they look into it in terms of maybe doing it like the NFL system a little bit," he said.

But that's a challenge for later. For these playoffs and World Series, replay will review only contested home run calls.

It's been a real quiet October for replay despite a few ballparks - Tropicana Field and its catwalks, Fenway Park and the grabby fans around the Pesky Pole, Citizens Bank Park and its yellow lines - that can cause real problems for umpires.

But no Jeffrey Maier or Steve Bartman situations in sight.

In fact, after so many years of debate and dispute, replay hardly made a ripple after baseball put it into play Aug. 28. Seven calls have gone to replay, all in the regular season, and two were reversed.

"So far, it seems to be working out," said longtime umpire John Hirschbeck, president of the umps' union. "I don't think the test is nearly complete."

Hirschbeck said a joint committee of umpires and Major League Baseball representatives would meet about a month after the World Series ends to fine-tune odd circumstances that might arise because of replay.

"I think we have everything mapped out," he said.

Among the kinds of plays to be discussed will be the kooky sequence that happened in San Francisco last month. Bengie Molina of the Giants hit a ball against the Dodgers that umpires originally ruled a single, and a pinch-runner entered. After a replay review, the call was changed to a home run - but the pinch-runner was forced to remain in the game and complete the run around the bases.

"I think they're trying to work out the bugs because we had an unusual circumstance," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.

Overall, he likes replay.

"To me, I think it's a good rule. I think the umpires for a long time, years ago, were a little reluctant to ask for help," Torre said. "But I think they do it more and more now where they try to get it right and they try to get different perspectives. And now with the addition of the view with the video I think gives them the advantage of seeing interference, fair-foul, home run or no home run, stuff like that."

"I think the concept is good," he said.

Tropicana Field was the place where the first replay was used, and it confirmed a home run by Alex Rodriguez. The park also had the first reversal, and Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena wound up with a homer.

Rays manager Joe Maddon thought the Trop Shop was good candidate for the first place with a postseason replay test.

"We've used it twice in this ballpark. The first I couldn't really tell on A-Rod's homer. It was hit too high and the pole's not high enough, so it was such a gray area you really can't even dispute it," he said.

"The second one worked in our favor on the home run by Carlos Pena, and the system worked relatively fast, so I'm good with it. I thought it worked as it was advertised and was fine," he said.

Houston was the only other ballpark that twice used replay. Philadelphia and Seattle also used it, along with San Francisco.

Umpires generally frowned on the idea of replay for years, wanting to trust their own decisions. Commissioner Bud Selig also discouraged replay, preferring the human element to determine outcomes, until a spate of missed home run calls this summer prompted him to approve the system.

Umpires now are most concerned replay doesn't expand to other calls such as out or safe and swing or checked swing.

Floyd, however, wouldn't mind that. He's still wondering about a play in the clinching game of the Angels-Boston playoff series, where Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek made a key tag and then lost the ball when he hit the ground. Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia argued to no avail.